O’Connor disqualifications puzzling

WASHING TON -As a Supreme Court justice , Sandra D. O’Connor was expected to draw special attention. She is doing so for an unusual reason: for the things she is not doing. She is declining to participate in court cases at a higher rate than any other justice. Her pattern of frequent self-disqualification appears to be well set after less than six weeks on the bench . So far, the court has held full-scale hearings on 38 cases, and O’Connor stayed off the bench for five of them. That rate of so-called “refusal” is especially high. She also has refused to participate in 18 other cases the court has handled. Following the custom that nearly every justice has adopted, she has refused to explain the disqualifications. The court announces the fact that a justice is out of a case, but usually nothing else is said about it, on or off the record. As in O’Connor’s recent actions, there has been no hint that any disqualifications involved anything illegal or improper. The issue arose fresh for O’Connor last week after her lawyer husband, John J . O’Connor III, signed on as a partner with a Washington law firm. His search for a partnership here apparently involved efforts to avoid an affiliation that would complicate his wife’s judicial life. A member of the firm of Miller & Chevalier said there had been some discussion about how few cases the firm handles in the Supreme Court. It would be automatic for the justice to stay out of any appeal involving her husband ‘s firm . All federal judges